Discovering the Question
by Veleda
Summary: Post movie. Finch is learning to question. Evey has his answers. EveyFinch


Finch isn't quite comfortable with this. He isn't quite comfortable with this strange, self-assured woman. He's never met anyone like Evey Hammond before, and the fact frightens him.

Today they took a walk. That sounds nice, but Evey's not a normal girl. She didn't take him to a park. No, she led him straight through a riot that had broken out. Finch can't get the uproar out of his head. Even now, eyes open or closed, all he can see is the violence. He was horrified as they raced through the chaos.

Evey, on the other hand, was grinning like a madwoman. The way her eyes were lit up, you would have thought she was a kid on Christmas. "It will be like this for a while," she said. "Everyone's lost and confused. They don't know what to do with themselves." Her smile calmed, and transformed into something filled with strong, sure hope. "But things will get better. Just as soon as they remember who they are."

It is difficult to imagine Evey being even slightly unsure of who she is.

As much as her manic joy can disturb him sometimes, it terrifies Finch to see her sad. Evey's sadness is like the rest of her—overwhelmingly intense. When she grieves, the sorrow in her eyes looks as though it could drown worlds.

He came home one night to find her hunched over some toilet paper, of all things. It took a few moments for him to realize that she was reading. She was so absorbed in the words that she didn't even notice him come in. He had to touch her shoulder to get her attention. When she looked up at him, his chest seized up at the pain in her eyes.

"Can you even imagine what it would be like to not be allowed to love?" she asked him. "Can you conceive the pain and fear we would face if these feelings we have could get us killed?"

Finch wanted to comfort her, but he couldn't find the words, and then she was taking his clothes off and kissing him as though she needed him to live, and he forgot such trivial things as words on toilet paper.

It was only after Evey had fallen asleep that Finch realized that she had told him that she loved him.

Finch often gets the feeling that Evey doesn't really live in the present. She's mostly a creature of the future, seeing things that haven't happened, explaining to him how the world will grow and change. She has a tendency to be right.

Sometimes, however, she snaps back to the past, and that is when Finch is the most unsettled. She once led him to a grave. He recognized the name—Gordon Deitrich—as Evey's boss from back when she was working in television, but he was clearly far more than simply an employer to Evey. He had watched in amazement as she knelt in front of the grave and kissed the stone. Then she reached into her coat and pulled out a small book. He looked closer and saw that it was an abridged Koran.

"I walked into a bookstore and bought it, just like that." She was obviously speaking to the grave… or maybe the person beyond the grave. She continued, oblivious to the world around her. "I wish you could read it with me." She laid the book on the dirt and stood. When Finch looked into her eyes, he saw such loss that he wanted to cry. Then she smiles and walks away, and he can do nothing but follow.

Evey lives in an underground cavern filled to the brim with books, music, and art. Finch often asks questions about individual works, and she always knows the answer. He loves asking her questions, just to hear the passion in her voice when she replies.

There is, however, one question he does not ask, for he does not know where to begin. Finch wants Evey to explain Him. He wants to understand the man who transformed the woman he loves into who she is, the man who made their country into what it is today. He wants to know all the things only Evey can tell him, the things only Evey knows.

Maybe he will ask someday, but not today, and not tomorrow. He's not ready to hear the answer yet, but thinks that eventually he will be … and then he will find the words.

Until then he reads Evey's books, and dances to her music. He sleeps in her bed, and touches her body. Whenever he is unsure, he hears her voice and he is no longer lost.

Evey is his answer, and with her help he will discover the question.


End file.
